Day 6 - "Oia, Oi-a oh!"

So today started with a HUGE hangover...I blame tequila! I dragged my sorry ass to breakfast (which is more than can be said for Andrew!) which helped a little bit, and then equilibrium was fully restored after a swim in the crystal clear sea. We still had the car today, so we drove to Oia, famous for its caldera views and sunsets, located on the northernmost tip of the island. It is quite a schlepp up there, and after hurtling into oncoming traffic up a one way street, we eventually arrived in Oia, but it was well worth the trip. There is not much to do here other than wander the streets and revel in the general gorgeousness of it all, and it is genuinely beautiful. The views over the caldera and looking back at the cliff top towns of Imerovigli and Fira are worth the hype, and the journey. The town itself is a brilliant place to get lost in, as it's easy to lose your orientation due to the irregular, tumbling nature of the streets, but around each corner is a new little corner of beauty or a different stunning view to enjoy. There's a ruined castle right on the edge of the cliff, which we climbed and it provided a great panorama. Throughout the town are little boutique shops and (slightly pricey...) bars and restaurants. One which I loved was a little bookstore called Atlantis Books, which was a cave of books in many languages - it's a lovely place to drop in to if you can find it when you are here.

After some more wanderings and taking countless photographs of the same view, we hopped back into Costas and zoomed back to Perissa. Andrew was still hungover (the amateur...!) and went for a little afternoon snooze, so I took the opportunity to hit the beach again for an hour or two. For dinner, this time we headed in the opposite direction to Perivolos and a restaurant called Charlina's. On our first visit to Santorini we had lunch at Charlina's quite regularly, and although that was 5 years ago, remarkably the owner recognised and remembered us! The food was good - traditional Greek fayre for me, although the vegetarian options for Andrew were quite slim so he went for a vegetable pizza. The restaurant had traditional entertainment - tonight was Greek night! (Isn't every night here Greek night?) There was a bouzouki-playing man, a wailing, slightly out of tune lady and two dancers. The inevitable participation ensued, with varying degrees of enthusiasm from the general public. There was one particularly exhuberant woman living her best life while her husband sat head in hands being forced to jangle a tambourine - that kind of thing! The finale consisted of plate smashing whilst they set fire to the dance floor...And the guitar playing went on. And on...It was v entertaining though. After this silliness, we retired for a relatively early night, very full and content. Only two more days to go! Waaaah! I don't want to leave...